on labeling

labels, the great manifestation of organization! 

or rather, the idiot-proof way to differentiate jars of almond meal and pastry flour, fine sea salt and sugar.

prior to living with g, i had no need for labels. since it was just me by my lonesome, i rarely baked or even cooked, for that matter. my spice rack was spice-less because it never seemed logical to buy a full jar for a teaspoon of this or that. the only things that were full in my kitchen were the fruit bowl and fridge - loaded with fresh produce, labeling unnecessary.

and then i move in with mister kitchen-aid, king of ingredients. open the cabinet and behold every type of legume, grain, sugar, etc. when we first started dating, i was smitten by not only his bounty of cooking/baking goods, but also by his methodical labeling. i had met my match, indeed.

almost one year living together, labeling has become instinctive to me. as soon as we buy some loot (of the jar-able kind), we take it out of the original packaging to create room on the shelf, transfer it to a jar or canister, and label it. by doing this, we are saving space, reusing containers that would otherwise be thrown away/recycled, and making life helluva lot easier to locate things. happiness!

and just to put out there, i don't use any fancy-shmancy labeling machine. only a piece of paper, pen, and good ol' tape...just the way i was taught.